HOT HEAD a new zine for Hartford

We were out and about one day and came upon a new zine called Hot Head. YES we said and say each time we look over our copy. We need Hot Heads on ever corner, on every block on every street, all around the place. Hot Headsof the World WRITE! We Have Nothing To Lose But Our Chains!!! Gee, we said the underground in Hartford is alive and well and we love what they are saying. I found a copy at the Hartford Public Library, glad I did as there were only 2 copies left. So what is this Hot Head all about? Let’s start by listing each of the articles and a brief line or two from the writers. We are only going to wet your appetite a bit and hope that you will go out in search of the spring and then the summer issue or that a friend will pass along a copy of the 1st issue when they are finished. If you see one grab it. It is sure to become a classic. Surely it is and can be used as a guide for these revolutionary times.

The collective of writers wish to be and remain anonymous which in these times sometime it is better more fun and of course one can have far more freedom to say and to do what it is that they want to do. Many of us have never felt the need to accumulate praises for our work whatever road it goes down.We believe we are doing the work of the people, that the people rule and fuck leaders. Aren’t leaders usually a part of the problem or turn into the problem as we go along? I know Tommy knows something about this but he’s not speaking. Tommy is as tight lipped as little virgin Benny’s ass.

The cover of Hot Head is what stopped us in our tracks. Done in red and browns it is a copy of the mural at Little River Restoratives the fern bar down in the gentrifying section of Capitol Ave. You know the place where we all hung out at La Paloma, where poor Black, Brown and white folks and working class people live. This “fernie” was the first to come into the area gentrify and hope that the white folk moving back to the city downtown would come along to the underside for a ride. Well fuck them many of us said, fuck them again we say. Fuck their cocktails, their hip crowd and their new mural. Well the mural has been politicized if only on the cover of the zine. The word Restoratives has been crossed out to read, Little River Parasites. Yes that is what these gentrifying folks all over amerikkka are fucking blood sucking parasites. Sucking the blood the life line out of folks, moving them out and taking over, raising rents as they go. Its happening in just about every city in this country and we hope for the day when the people finally have enough of these parasites and rise up and slap them down. Come on San Francisco what the hell are you waiting for? “Don’t turn in your guns people, as Tommy Gunn says, there is a war coming.” The Words Defend Hartford cry out from the right corner and all around the mouth of the woman who stares out of the picture red. Is is blood, we know parasites suck blood or is she too drunk and can’t put on her lipstick. We have to admit that we are surprised that no one has tagged this piece of crap mural. All of us at furbirdsqueerly love the cover of this zine.

One line sums up the opening introduction of the zine. We have to say, YES, Tell it, tell it like it is, “Class inequality is real, people.” I am sure everyone who would even bother reading essays in furbirdsqueerly agree with that statement. It is a real one, its a true one and should be sprayed on walls everywhere.

Fake Liberalsby Hartford’s Happiest Hippy addressed to Dear White People in suburban Connecticut, Latinos who aren’t down for the brown and Black people when they see a person of color they frown:How about this line from Hartford’s Happiest Hippy- “In a state where we consider ourselves to be open-minded, liberal and forward thinking, what I have often encountered is people who are overwhelmingly the exact opposite. Many individuals have this idea that people who are from a certain area are all no good therefore, they are people who are not worth knowing individually. There are cities which are right near Hartford where I have been heckled for wearing my natural hair.” and this “It is people in a position of power, whatever position they may have, who prevent people from moving forward. You and whatever power you may wield, not allowing people any access to it are causing them harm. So do something about it.” Gotta get the zine to read all about it.

Aaron Stevens review of Hartbeat Ensemble’s new play, Gross Domestic Producthas got to be one of the best reviews of the wonderful working class theater group. Mr. Stevens brings up some very good points about what was missing in this play about compensation to mothers, class collaboration, women’s role in the struggles and has this to say: “In GDP, the idea of a “Birth Strike” as a strategy to win compensation to mothers is treated as an amusing and thought-provoking notion, which is quickly abandoned in favor of class collaboration between Shayla, a single black mother who’s lost custody of her child to social services and Senator Grady as she tries to keep her seat in government.

The entire tradition of real working class power-the power of mass organization and the refusal to work-is avoided entirely, and is substituted by an electoral circus where the argument is made a length that white ruling class women are first and foremost women. Questions of wage slavery, capitalist profit the permanent underclass, institutional racism, and the prison industrial complex are discussed in passing, white the story itself is driven mainly by the goal of promoting a cross-class alliance defined by biology: the ability to reproduce. A more interesting(and believable story would be about the organization of an actual strike movement among working class women around birth, housework or otherwise.”

And this–

“I don’t think that GDP’s shortcomings are a problem of Hartbeat Ensemble’s alone. The local political landscape leaves much to be desired, with precious few exceptions to inspire hope. The persistence of class collaboration and our admiration for the powerful are widespread. Year after year, this internalized oppression continues to hold us back in our movements and communities chipping- away at our ideals and lowering our exceptions. The case we should all strive to make is that we are more powerful and able to sustain ourselves if we pull no punches when giving voice to the real world struggles of our neighbors and fellow workers.”

Again gotta get it and read all about it. One of the best reviews I have read recently in this area. Most we have found are indeed full of fluff, mutual masturbation circles and pats on the back so not to ruffle any feathers. After all they say, this is a small city. Fuck that ruffling feathers and pinning the ass of the policeman’s horse is part of our job.

No War But Class War! Frank Little Is Still Speaking.

“Either we are for their capitalist slaughter feast or we are against it”…Frank Little and this, We must be united together to stop the suppression of free speech, the right to demonstrate, the right to call out the wrongs we see, we must be certain as Frank Little was that free Speech is our cornerstone in fighting off the enemy of the people, and that this right can not be taken away from us. So whats our job. As Leon Czolgoxy siad, “Don’t dare surrender, don’t throw away your life. Don’t back the leader’s wars, don’t believe their lies. Dare to struggle, and break off your chains. No War But Class War! No War But Class War! We here at furbirdsqueerly fully agree. We look forward to more writings by Tommy Gunn in future issues of Hot Head.

Be forewarned. One of the saddest pieces was Donna Berman’s Good Vibrations’: How to betray a social movmeent in order to increase funding for your non-profit. written by Joshua Jayrex and explores what happens when whites no matter how well respected in some circles, or how caring they are will try to lead and then profit from these movements. The essay takes us from the forming of a coalition in response to the tasering of Luis Anglero by HPD. Berman and the much loved and respected Rev. Cornell Lewis lead the coalition, to the march on police headquarters and the insistence of Berman that the chief of police be allowed to march with the demonstrates to the disappearance of Berman from the coalition and to the finding out of the reason that she was so insistent to include the enemy of the people in the march.

From the account by Mr. Jayrex: “During both the organization of the march, as well as during the march itself Berman demonstrated that she was either uncomfortable with or unwilling to defer to black leadership, preferring to steer the coalition’s politics toward her own vision rather than standing in solidarity with the vision of those who were more directly affected. This is indicative of a long history of white appropriation of black struggle.

“It was exposed that all during the time of this coalition and the march that Berman was negotiating with the city for a large grant that she would eventually receive from the Hartford Police Department. The grant would be used to fund a pro-police program aimed at city youth.” What a trip is all we can say about this. Mr. Jayrex ends the article with Dr. King’s word written from a jail cell in Birmingham, “I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal, you seek but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action.”

If you missed this article you have missed a whole lot that we in any movement can and should understand before we even attempt to form coalitions or when we see or hear that folks who are not directly affected by any problem are trying to wrestle the reins from those who are we must put an end to the nonsense. It will only lead us astray from our goals, split and divide us and in this case of Ms. Berman become collaborators with the enemy of the people.

Overheard in Hartford

Page 31 contained a photo or four cops sitting in the Dunkin Donuts on Capitol Ave . One person who overheard the four HPD officers loudly voicing support for noted racist xenophobic misogynistic fascist Donald Trump. Again we must ask which side are you on? Date, Photo, car numbers also included in photo along with this statement: Let’s forget about “keeping politics off the job.” The police are a political organization that exists to be the boot on the neck of communities of color. This just highlights that reality. Cops off the block! Strong communities don’t need police.” Amen to that.

Last but not least is an essay The Presumed Secrets of the Trinity College Assault Case, an article tracing the assault of a student at the college in Hartford. You know the ivy league college up on the hill. The place that is churning out the next leaders, the next bosses, and hopefully enough folks who say no to this system and all that it holds dear. Will Moffett, Jr. has this to say:

“On March 4th, 2012 in he early morning, the story goes that a group jumped out of a car and brutally assaulted Trinity College student Chis Kenny, near the corner of Summit Street and Allen Place; sending him to the hospital and unleashing a maelstrom of rage and confusion. “Hartford Locals,” the pejorative term coined by Trinity students to refer to members of the surrounding community, were instantly blamed by many. The justified–but often exaggerated concerns over campus safety issues were blown up into a symbolic call to arms. In the days following I overheard dozens of conversations laden with paranoia, implied racism, and naive elitism.” Mr. Moffett goes on to discuss life at Trinity, the gag order from the president concerning faculty or students discussing the case with outsiders,Trinity’s Greek System, notorious Fraternities, hazing incidents, sociopathic behavior occurring among students with no punishment for such behavior, and the upper crust using urban dwellers as scapegoats. Yes we too have this question as Mr. Moffett says, “Do you want to live in a world where the gatekeepers of presumed reality are those that have the best troupe of lawyers, which silence and litigate as libel any opposing opinion, regardless of fact?” We sure don’t.

On the last page a finger points to holding on to a little sticker a take off of the I Voted Today sticker that one gets after voting is the slogan, I continued the cycle of my own oppression today. After reading that I think it over each evening. How did I do that continuation today? What did I do to continue it? Did I look in the mirror, as Tommy Gunn asks, and spit at myself? What did I do to help liberate myself today and by doing so start the process for others? Or did I sit back and take the BS from the boss? Many years ago in art school I learned the theory that one idea pushes another. Well that is a sure thing for readers of Hot Head.

The back cover of the zine the statement, White people love snitching so much they created Yelp. We will let you decide on that one.

As we said in our opening, zines like this are needed and we need more hot heads all around. The times call for such action. My only wish is that this zine came out every month.